A powerfully eloquent novel that gives us a closer understanding not only of an individual, but of a whole century, with all its twists and turns, its errors, its great desires.
A day in a life that is longer than all the months and years to follow. A moment of eternity, when life seems to stand still. Something of vital importance has been shut off from his memory – was it a winter’s day? Or was it in May?
It was wartime.
The hero of the novel attempts to gain access to his memories by constantly recording them on tape, like a man possessed. Finally, on his deathbed, it dawns on him what really happened that day. It is like preserving a dream, how can one continue to exist in a world of wreckage where the absent are more present than those close at hand, where a lie creates more order than the truth? And – is it really his story, or that of the narrator, who does not know what to do with the cassettes he has inherited, who is interested not in war, but in life and love?
In singular images – against the backdrop of a sunken world – Anna Baar tells of the dichotomy between taking care of oneself and considering the needs of others, of tests of courage, heroism and human error titious truths, human abysses and curiosities. A great ode to life.
Anna Baar, born in Zagreb (former Yugoslavia) in 1973. Childhood and youth in Vienna, Klagenfurt and on the Dalmatian island of Brač. Studied journalism and public relations at the universities of Vienna and Klagenfurt. In 2017 winner of the Theodor Körner prize for excellent and innovative achievements in the areas of art and science. Lives in Klagenfurt.
